Thursday, August 17, 2017

Rebel Hart should be at home taking care of her father after his breakup with his boyfriend, not tromping through the woods at summer camp. He’s had his heart broken beyond repair, and the way she sees it, there’s only one person to blame—the boyfriend’s son. So when that infuriatingly gorgeous quarterback turns up at the same camp, she plans to make him pay.

Justice Brody isn’t happy about trading training camp for actual summer camp. But if he wants to stay on the football team, he has to show that he can be drama-free. He welcomes the anonymity that comes with summer camp…until he realizes the one girl who knows him better than anyone is there, too. Rebel is off-limits, impossibly beautiful…and trouble with a capital T. Still, he can’t stay away. And even as Rebel exacts her revenge, in several very embarrassing and painful ways, neither can she.

Dawn Klehr is the author of the young adult thrillers: The Cutting Room Floor and If You Wrong Us.

She began her career in TV news and though she’s been on both sides of the camera, she prefers to lurk behind the lens. Mostly, she loves to get lost in stories –in film, the theater, or on the page – and is a sucker for both the sinister and the sappy. She’s currently channeling her dark side as she works on her next book.

Dawn lives in the Twin Cities with her funny husband, adorable son, and naughty dog.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

A fallen star. Four Los Angeles misfits. And the Marilyn Monroe you only thought you knew.

Del Corwyn is an aging relic. An actor who advanced from errand boy to Academy Award nominee, Del kept company with the elite of Hollywood’s golden era and shared a close friendship with Marilyn Monroe. Today, however, he faces bankruptcy.

Humiliated, Del is forced to downgrade his lifestyle, sell the home he’s long cherished, and fade into a history of forgotten legends—unless he can revive his career. All he needs is one last chance. While searching through memorabilia from his beloved past, Del rediscovers a mysterious envelope, dated 1962, containing an original screenplay by Marilyn Monroe—and proof that she named him its legal guardian.

Del surges to the top of Hollywood’s A-list overnight. But the opportunity to reclaim his fame and fortune brings a choice: Is Del willing to sacrifice newfound love, self-respect and his most cherished friendship to achieve his greatest dream?

A story of warmth, humor and honesty, Beautiful Mess follows one man’s journey toward love and relevance where he least expects it—and proves coming-of-age isn’t just for the young.

Wide-eyed, Del ran his fingers across the crisp, white paper, a stack of sheets bound together by brass fasteners along its left margin. He was in his early twenties.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Marilyn Monroe replied with a staccato laugh. “I’m a woman of many wonderful traits.” Though thirty-six years old, she took childlike pleasure in his reaction. Innocent. She had exquisite diction, a byproduct of training with Natasha Lytess, her first acting coach.

“When did you write this?”

“During my hiatus, the one I took after we wrapped up production on The Prince and the Showgirl. Arthur and I split our time between New York and Connecticut, and he helped me as I wrote,” she replied, her countenance now matter-of-fact, her voice sultry yet airy. “I believe it was an outlet for him, too. He was so frustrated by that time, wondering about his own future. He believed in me, and I think it helped him believe in himself. So as I wrote the scenes, he gave me advice on how to make the characters richer, more alive.”

They sat together in the living room of her home in Brentwood. “Johnny Angel” played on her phonograph. They were alone in the house.

“This must have taken a long time to write.”

“I had eighteen months before I returned to Hollywood to shoot Some Like It Hot,” she replied. Her gaze fell to the floor, and her voice grew softer. “I’d been through so much by that point. Trying to make my second marriage work. The pain of losing a child…”

As her words drifted, young Del noticed she had waded into the territory of the forlorn. For the past year, she had seemed more prone toward that tendency, and pain filled Del’s heart whenever he watched it emerge. He tried to return her attention to the script, which seemed to make her happy. It was an obvious source of pride for her.

“You never mentioned you’re a writer. Why doesn’t anybody know?”

Her countenance brightened again, and Del felt relieved. She shot him a cunning glare.

“There’s more to me than the reporters know about,” she replied with a wink, wagging a red-polished fingernail at him, ever the mentor. “Here’s an important tip for you: Never tell them everything. Always keep a little secret or two for yourself, something to hold in your heart. Something you can control in this crazy world.”

Del fanned the pages, opening the document at random points to scan snippets of dialogue. What a sense of accomplishment she must have felt! He admired its professional layout, which looked identical to the scripts he’d used on the sets. Del wondered it Marilyn had typed this on the manual typewriter he’d seen Arthur Miller use in their home.

“Is this any good?” Del asked. “I mean, have you shown it to anyone?”

“Only to Arthur, back when we were married.” She giggled in her typical Marilyn manner. “Can you imagine? The great Arthur Miller coaches Marilyn Monroe in literature,” she punctuated with a male reporter’s voice, underscoring it with faux solemnity. “You do know he rewrote the script for Let’s Make Love, don’t you? He said the original was a catastrophe and he wanted to protect me. Wasn’t that sweet? Many people don’t know that. He wrote the script for The Misfits, too. The man certainly knows what he’s doing, if you ask me. Look at Death of a Salesman. Pure genius! Regardless of how our marriage worked out, the man was a brilliant writer.”

Young Del ran his hand across Marilyn’s screenplay again, eager to read it from beginning to end. Maybe they could perform in it together!

Yet he couldn’t ignore a chill that raced up his spine. Why here? Why now?

Author Bio:

John Herrick is the author of From the Dead and 8 Reasons Your Life Matters. A graduate of the University of Missouri—Columbia, readers turn to him as a chronicler of spiritual journey and the human heart. Herrick lives in St. Louis.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Isobel Avery is on her second assignment as an undercover poison taster for Los Angeles's rich and famous. And she’s actually enjoying herself. Until her sweet, agoraphobic client mysteriously leaves the safety of his apartment and winds up dead.

When crucial evidence goes missing, investigator Connor Stiles will need Izzy's inside knowledge to help track down the killer. But despite three months of absence to make Connor’s heart grow fonder, he doesn't seem pleased to be working with her again. The LAPD commander is even less pleased to have Izzy on the case since he considers her a suspect and, even worse, a mere civilian. To top it all off, her least favorite relative in the whole wide world drops by for an unexpected visit.

Meanwhile, the killer is destroying anything that might link back to them. Including Izzy if she's not careful.

In this fun-packed romantic sequel to Eat, Pray, Die, join Izzy as she learns where she stands with the enigmatic Connor and tries to put another bad guy behind bars.

The Hunger Pains begins when Izzy has to go to work, but is late one morning. She's been working for a new client for the last three months, and things have been going good for her, other than gaining some weight. But when her client ends up dead, she's a murder suspect, but she's also going to do everything she can to figure out who killed him and why.

She ends up getting some help from Conner again, but this time he's acting a bit different towards her, and she isn't sure how to take it.

This book was a great addition to this series. I adored Izzy's detective skills, and how she and Conner were acting in this one. I also loved how it ended as well. So, I'm super excited about the next one.

But this one also includes a great mystery, some humorous issues, and great set of characters.

Being an undercover poison taster for the rich and famous might sound glamorous, but for Isobel Avery it means stomaching bad clients and even worse coffee.

The one side of the job that lives up to expectations is the money. Which is just as well for Izzy, since she needs an awful lot of it. Who knew when she made a lifelong commitment to a man that it would be one year living with him and the rest of her life paying for it?

But even her scoundrel ex-husband doesn’t look so bad compared to her new client. He’s competent, condescending, and annoyingly attractive, and Izzy doesn’t know whether to sleep with him or poison him herself. Throw in a loan-shark, a nosy neighbor, and a murder attempt, and Izzy will have her work cut out for her.

Izzy has been in L.A. training for a secret job as a poison tester for almost a year now. She needs a lot of money quickly to pay of the loan shark her ex-husband stuck her with.

But with her first assignment things get sticky when she has to find out who is trying to murder a client. Her new boss is also very attractive, and she doesn't know weather he is being serious about them getting together or not, and she would rather just work on trying to stay alive.

This book was a hilarious good read. It starts off funny, and ends that way as well. I loved the main characters, and the plot line as well. I can't wait to find out more, and what will happen next!

Mack’s Bar and its crime-solving clientele are quickly gaining notoriety for helping solve some high-profile cases. But Mack is learning the hard way that not all press is good press…

By day, Mackenzie "Mack" Dalton is the proprietress of a popular Milwaukee watering hole. But after last call, she uses her unique cocktail of extra perceptive senses to help solve some of the city’s most grisly homicides. Now, Mack and her barstool detectives are happy to help when Tiny, one of the bar’s newest patrons, asks them to look into his sister’s murder. Though the case has gone cold, Mack’s heightened senses quickly put her on the killer’s trail. But when a throng of reporters intrigued by her talents descends on Mack’s Bar, her efforts are muddled as a real-life Moriarty begins putting her infamous skills to the test, leaving Mack feeling shaken and stirred…

* Includes drink recipes *

In the Drink begins when Mack realizes that she may be being stalked, and things aren't looking good for her. This stalker wants her to play a game, and if she doesn't comply people in her group will start dying. Mack has no idea what to do, and when she goes to Duncan even though she isn't sure what their relationship is now, he does his best to help, but things aren't looking good.

Now, Mack has the help of an undercover cop named Mal, who she also has an attraction to. Between Mal, and Duncan things are getting complicated and this stalker is getting worse.

This book was so very good! I thought it was awesome. I loved the story line, and I also loved the relationships going on as well. I'm not sure who I want Mack to end up with, but this one also ends on a crazy cliffhanger and I can't wait to read the next book!

The regulars at Mack's Bar love putting their heads together to solve a good mystery. But Mack is learning there's a big difference between barroom brain teasers and real-life murder. . .

Milwaukee bar owner Mackenzie "Mack" Dalton has a unique neurological condition that gives her extra perceptive senses, and police detective Duncan Albright is convinced Mack's abilities can be used to help catch crooks. Mack may be at pro at mixing drinks, but she's still an amateur when it comes to solving crimes--and she's not sure she should mix business with pleasure by working with a man who stirs up such strong feelings in her. At her first crime scene--a suspicious suicide--she experiences a heady cocktail of mixed sensations and emotions that make her question whether police work is right for her. But when Duncan asks her to help find a kidnapped child, she knows she has to give it a shot. . .

"The first book in the Mack's Bar Mystery series is a hit!" --RT Book Reviews on Murder on the Rocks

The second book in the series begins with Duncan using Mack's ability to help him with a case. They quickly solve it, but Mack is starting to wonder if this is something she can really do. But when a baby goes missing, she's all for helping out no matter what happens. However, things start to get complicated, and Mack isn't sure which way is up or down.

This book wasn't as good as the first one. I'm starting to have my doubts about Duncan, and I was a little bit annoyed with how insecure Mack was in this one. I'm hoping the next one will be better, but I still liked this one, and the mystery was fun.